Psychiatry has always been a poor sister in comparison with general medicine. In the early 1900s, psychiatry and mental illness were already attracting negative coverage in the media, and things have not changed much since, despite the digital revolution.
We cannot understand the apathy within psychiatry itself in the face of this: instead of taking the media head on about its negative bias, psychiatrists have failed to stop it. Every day, news stories are flashed out about people with mental disorder, but rather than challenging the negative thinking about our clients, we become entangled in a blame game against psychiatry itself.
The stigma surrounding mental illness is here to stay unless we as psychiatrists start to work on attitudes in our own workplace and on the apathy that seems to have submerged the field.
The media remains more interested in sensational stories than in working with psychiatry and its professionals to change misconceptions.
They say it is never too late to start a revolution. But who will do it?
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